Thursday, 26 February 2009

"That's a nice outfit," I said"I'm The Tidy Fairy, " replied O. "Except I'm dusting becuase I like that better than tidying.""The Tidy Fairy?""Yeah - you know. The one who tidies our bedrooms."And at that point I realised that 6 year olds don't really get sarcasm.

I won't be saying 'Who do you think tidied your room? The tidy fairy?' any more. I want some credit around here.

Friday, 20 February 2009

The Isle of Wight is my new favourite place to go on holiday. I have added it to my list of Places I love to visit the most in the UK. We spent a happy five days walking along cliff tops and beaches, taking photos of seaweed, rocks, stones, birds, waves and views. It was warm and sunny, with just the right amount of mist and mystery in the early mornings.

I've added to a few other lists as well.

A favourite list of mine at the moment is Things I am Going To Do When I am Retired. At the moment this list mainly consists of loose travel plans involving long distance hikes, but it is growing rapidly and by the time I am retired (at least thirty years away) I will need a great deal of energy to work my way through it. This week I added Walking around the Isle of Wight Coast to that list. The Isle of Wight is a walker's paradise with hundreds of marked trails, views around every turn and plenty of tea rooms and pubs for mid-walk refreshment.

My Best Smells list has two new additions to it: seaweed and espresso-made-by-G-to-cheer-me-up. My children claim to hate the smell of seaweed - how can this be? It is the essence of a seaside walk. This week I took deep lung-filling breaths as I walked along the empty beaches. Espresso-made-by-G-to-cheer-me-up smells even better than normal coffee does, which is already pretty good. Coffee made with kindness and love (in the face of grouchiness and scowls) is a wonderful thing indeed.

My Things I Can Knit list is coming along nicely too. I finished some mittens for C before we left for our holiday, and while we were away I knitted myself this hat. I love it - mainly because I knitted it, but also because its comfy, looks pretty funky, and ACTUALLY FITS. For any of you out there who also have oddly sized heads, knitting your own hats is the way to go. No more weird red stripes and indentations on my forehead when I take off my hat - hoorah!

Tuesday, 10 February 2009

My brother-in-law was clearing the loft at the house where his parents have lived for the past thirty-five years. He wanted to know if C would like some old copies of The Beano that he had found tucked away.

As every pre-teen child must know, The Beano has recently celebrated its 70th birthday. Indeed the actual ‘Gnashiversary’ fell on a family wedding last year and C was disappointed in my blanket ban of ANY celebratory menacing that day.

C loves The Beano. As I did at his age, as his uncles and aunts did at his age and as probably most children in Britain do at his age. Of course I said yes to the treasures from the loft.

They appeared on Sunday evening, delivered by Uncle Richard in person. About thirty comics from the early 80s and three annuals from the mid 70s. C murmured his thanks, but was already straining his head sideways to read the cover of one of the magazines in his uncle’s arms. He carried on reading until bedtime, even as he lugged his precious loot up the stairs to his room. When I went in to wake him for school on Monday, he was reading. When I got home from work on Monday evening as the children were going to bed, he was still reading.

Today was the same.

He has even taken one to school to show his class (carefully protected in a plastic sleeve he raided from my desk).

I asked C if The Beano had changed much in the last thirty years or so. He didn’t look up from his reading, but did at least reply. He told me he was shocked at how much the price has increased – 14p in 1982 to £1.20 today. And he was even more shocked that Dennis The Menace’s father used to whack him with a slipper when he was naughty. Who would have thought that The Beano would reflect more modern parenting techniques?!

C plans to keep these vintage Beanos for a long time. Until he is grown up and can pass them on to his own children he said (“but only if they’re careful with them – not if they’re going to rip them or anything”). So thank you Uncle Richard – you have made a small boy very happy indeed.

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For those of you who are Sudoku fans, check out Uncle Richard’s Strictly Sudoku site.

Thursday, 5 February 2009

Pinkie Cupcake and I were bemoaning the lack of easily accessible knitting groups. I can trek into Central London of an evening every now and then, but on a regular basis I know its not really going to happen.

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So we've set up a knitting group on Facebook called East End Knitters and the inaugural meeting is next week. If you live locally and would like to come along, then please do get in touch!

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Here is O's first mitten, waiting to be blocked and stitched up. I'm rather pleased with it! The second one is merely a few rows away from completion too. I love the madly pink/red wool - it is Patons Fairytale Color 4 me in colour 4981.